Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
English Standard Version (ESV)
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Colossians 3:18
What does Colossians 3:18 mean?
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Colossians 3:18
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The phrase "as is fitting in the Lord" is crucial here; it doesn't just mean "do this because God said so," but that this submission is appropriate and fitting specifically within the context of their Christian walk and union with Christ. It frames this duty not as a mere cultural expectation, but as something that aligns with their new identity in God.
Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
English Standard Version (ESV)
Paul is shifting from general instructions on Christian living to specific guidance for relationships within the household. This section lays out the duties of wives and husbands, then children and parents, and finally slaves and masters, grounding their interactions in their shared faith in Christ. The verse about wives submitting to their husbands naturally leads into the command for husbands to love their wives.
The Bible calls wives to submit to their husbands, but what does that really mean? Is it just blind obedience, or something deeper?
The call for wives to submit isn't about hierarchy for hierarchy's sake. It's framed within the Christian faith, specifically "as is fitting in the Lord." This means the submission is grounded in our union with Christ and is intended to reflect the healthy, loving relationship between Christ and the Church. It's not a submission to a harsh ruler, but to a husband who, as part of the Christian community, is also called to love and honor his wife. This context transforms submission from a potentially oppressive command into a sacred trust, practiced out of love for God and within the framework of Christian mutuality.
Why use the word 'fitting' or 'proper'? This word choice hints at a beautiful intention behind the instruction.
The Greek word translated as 'fitting' or 'proper' here suggests something that is not only suitable but also morally right and becoming within a specific context. It points to an ideal state or an obligation that is inherently appropriate. In the context of the early church, where new relationships were being formed under Christ's lordship, this instruction affirmed that submission, when practiced within the Christian framework, was the right way for a wife to relate to her husband. It wasn't a new invention but a recognition of an established, godly order that aligned with Christian principles. It was about acting in a way that was decorous and pleasing to God within their marital covenant.
Understand the original words
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hypotassesthe · Greek Verb
The act of voluntarily placing oneself under the authority or leadership of another, modeled after the church's relationship to Christ and reflecting divine order.
The instruction for wives to submit to their husbands is given within the context of the Roman patriarchal society and the early Christian church's need to establish clear roles that were both divinely ordained and socially appropriate.
c. 49 BC
Roman Law and Social Order
Roman society was highly patriarchal, with husbands holding significant legal authority over their wives and families, a backdrop against which Paul's instructions were received.
c. 60-62 AD— this verse
Paul Writes to the Colossians
Paul, likely imprisoned in Rome, writes to the church in Colossae, a city in Asia Minor, addressing various issues including false teachings and proper Christian conduct within households.
c. 64 AD
Nero's Persecution of Christians
Though Paul's letter predates the major persecution under Nero, the general social and political climate in the Roman Empire was often hostile towards Christian distinctiveness.
This passage directly parallels Colossians 3:18, expanding on the concept of wives submitting to their husbands 'as to the Lord'.
1 Peter 3:1Peter echoes Paul's instruction to wives, urging them to be submissive to their own husbands, adding that even if some husbands do not obey the word, they may be won over by the respectful conduct of their wives.
Genesis 2:18This foundational creation account highlights the 'helper suitable' for man, providing an early picture of the complementary roles within marriage that undergirds the later New Testament instructions on submission.
Titus 2:4-5These verses instruct older women to train younger women to love their husbands and children, and to be self-controlled, pure, busy at home, and kind, which speaks to the practical outworking of a wife's role within the home.
henryColossians 3:18-25: "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord."
3:18-25 The epistles most taken up in displaying the glory of the Divine grace, and magnifying the Lord Jesus, are the most particular in pressing the duties of the Christian life. We must never separate the privileges and duties of the gospel. Submission is the duty of wives. But it is submission, not to a severe lord or stern tyrant, but to her own husband, who is engaged to affectionate duty. And…
meyerColossians 3:18: "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord."
Colossians 3:18 to Colossians 4:1 .[164] Instructions for the different portions of the household . Why Paul should have given to the churches such a table of household rules only in this Epistle and in that to the Ephesians (comp. also 1 Tim. and Tit.), must be left wholly undecided (Chrysostom exhausts himself in conjectures). They are not polemical; but possibly, in the presence of a theosophico-asc…
The phrase "as is fitting in the Lord" is crucial here; it doesn't just mean "do this because God said so," but that this submission is appropriate and fitting specifically within the context of their Christian walk and union with Christ. It frames this duty not as a mere cultural expectation, but as something that aligns with their new identity in God.
Paul is shifting from general instructions on Christian living to specific guidance for relationships within the household. This section lays out the duties of wives and husbands, then children and parents, and finally slaves and masters, grounding their interactions in their shared faith in Christ. The verse about wives submitting to their husbands naturally leads into the command for husbands to love their wives.
Paul is shifting from general instructions on Christian living to specific guidance for relationships within the household. This section lays out the duties of wives and husbands, then children and parents, and finally slaves and masters, grounding their interactions in their shared faith in Christ. The verse about wives submitting to their husbands naturally leads into the command for husbands to love their wives.
"Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord." — The phrase "as is fitting in the Lord" is crucial here; it doesn't just mean "do this because God said so," but that this submission is appropriate and fitting specifically *within the context of the…
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Last reviewed October 2026